Rabbi’s Blog

I got lost last week driving my son to his baseball game and ended up at Morgan Falls water fall. Morgan Falls is part of a hydroelectric plant. I noticed that on this Sunday there were two channels open, releasing water with a powerful force. Often times I think of...

Empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”. Moses is truth. Aaron is kindness. Kindness and truth have met; righteousness and peace have kissed.Although Aaron and Moses are brothers, and of two different natures, they exemplify...

By Aharon Loschak Once there was a millionaire who had a collection of live alligators, which he kept in a pool at the back of his mansion.He decided to throw a huge party, during which he announced, “My dear guests, I have a proposition to everyone here. I will...

Have you ever used the selfie mode on your cell phone? Silly question. Of course you have.  We all have. I look at the my image on the selfie mode, move my lips this way and that, working on a smile that will look real, or using one of the many filters to...

It could be so heavy at times. Schlepping around the burden of life, complicated by experiences of early childhood, further complicated by genetic make up.  It seems like there is no escape.The answer… The half shekel.The Torah tells us that we bring a half shekel,...

In our tradition, Apples represent a state of purity and holiness. Maybe that’s why an apple a day keeps the doctor away?! Pomegranates on the other hand represent the rough and tumble part of ourselves.  As our Sages teach, “even the empty ones among the Jewish...

Have you encountered those people from an earlier generation who might make a comment like “I don’t envy you raising children these days”? Bless their hearts.  They mean well but they don’t really get it. We are raising the greatest generation, ever! Yes, I’m one...

Are you thankful that you woke up this morning?The expression ‘living on borrowed time’, is used when a person lives past their expected lifespan. The truth is that we are all on borrowed time. G-d lends us our soul each morning and tells us to please treat the day as...

The opening story of this week's Torah portion gives some important wisdom in dealing with awkward in-law relationships. Yitro was a very powerful personality. He was a leader, a scholar and a mystic. When Moses became Yitro's son-in-law, he was a fugitive on the run...